Arizona State University
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

ASU engages the local community in multiple sustainable food programs:

Sun Devil Hospitality hosted events to distribute local, organic produce to students and meal plan holders across all 4 campuses.

Garden Commons at the Polytechnic Campus is maintained with the help of ASU community volunteers. Produce harvested from the Garden Commons is sold on the Polytechnic campus at a “farm stand” or is donated to local food banks. Produce is accessible to students for no fee. Anyone may purchase this produce and sales are advertised on the publicly accessible Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/PolyGardens/ and Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/asugardencommons/. In FY19, the Garden Commons donated 1489 pounds of organic produce to local food banks, logged 1,226 volunteer hours, held 19 weekly farm stands and engaged with 1,011 students, faculty, and staff. During the community service work days, the garden brings together ASU community members and external partners such as Coca-Cola and Stryker.

ASU Arboretum Harvest brings together ASU and local community volunteers to maintain, harvest, and package produce from the ASU campus grounds. Harvested produce is donated to local community groups (such as food banks and refugee support organizations) or is sold to the general public at affordable prices. For example, ASU’s iconic Palm Walk was replanted in 2017 with 110 date palms. These dates are harvested by ASU’s Grounds Services (due to the height of the trees, they must be harvested by professionals), then sorted and packed by both internal and external volunteers. Packed dates are sold in open areas of campus to the campus community and general public and are donated to community organizations that support refugees.

Engrained cafe (2 locations) Tempe Campus and Downtown Campus. Engrained café is a Green Restaurant Association Certified restaurant at ASU which opened in September 2008. Engrained is part of Sun Devil Hospitality’s Green Thread Platform that highlights sustainable food systems through a living and learning restaurant. The mission behind Engrained is outlined in our 6 intentions: Radius 150, Wall to Wall, Waste Not Want Not, Around the Community, Daily Commute, and Buy Smart. Engrained's menu changes seasonally, and the Executive Chef engages with local suppliers and producers to consistently innovate and develop climate-friendly recipes.

Aramark has a dedicated Supplier Diversity Manager who works with the local team at ASU to identify Women and Minority-owned businesses, along with disadvantaged businesses and social enterprises available in the region.

Cool Food Meals is a partnership Aramark has with the World Resource Institute (WRI) where hundreds of recipes were evaluated and given a carbon footprint based on ingredients. Recipes below a certain threshold are identified as "Cool Food Meals" and are identified as such with a menu icon. We encourage plant-forward meals through this program, as many of the dishes that are labeled "Cool Food Meals" are plant-based or plant-forward, containing only a small amount of animal protein. Aramark hosts several Cool Food events at all Residential dining halls featuring educational materials and giveaways for students. We also host "station takeover" events at the Daily Root, which is a 100% vegan station that features complete meals during all meal periods. Vendors are invited to campus to showcase their products at this station and educate students on the environmental benefits of choosing a plant-based option.

The Daily Root station at all dining halls features 100% vegan recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Vegan and vegetarian options are also available throughout the dining halls at other stations and are identified by specific icons on menu boards. ASU Catering also offers numerous complete vegan meal options for buffets and boxed meals.

“Cool Food Meals” icons are used on menu boards to inform customers of low impact food choices. We also utilize signage throughout all locations to educate students on our local partners, waste reduction efforts, sustainably certified seafood and animal product options, seasonal produce, composting, and more.

https://sundevildining.asu.edu/menus-and-nutrition/nutrition/dietary-needs/vegan-vegetarian

Sun Devil Hospitality uses the “5 P’s” system of managing food purchases and waste: Plan, Product, Production, Portion, and Post-Analysis. Each one of these steps has a set of tools available to our operators to help them manage food waste along the way. The Sun Devil Hospitality team also hosts a variety of customer facing waste education events, which are intended to educate customers on their role to help reduce food waste within the all you care to eat locations, and to inform our culinary team of any improvements or modifications they can implement to further these efforts.

Trays are not offered in any of the Residential dining locations. The vast majority of stations have a dining employee present to serve food, which allows for proper portioning and oversight. Customers are always welcome to come back for seconds.

High quality, unserved food is often leftover at the end of the day in our coffee, retail, and catering locations. Through a partnership with Arizonans for Children, who works to alleviate hardships for children in foster care, this food is collected and distributed to children in need. Sun Devil Hospitality also donates cases of perishable products during shutdown periods, such as winter and summer break.

All used fryer oil is collected for biodiesel and other industrial purposes.

All campus dining locations have a robust pre-consumer composting program which includes employee training, educational signage, and waste tracking. Appropriate bins are provided to reduce compost stream contamination.

Employees working in the Residential dining dish rooms are trained on compost procedures and how to properly sort waste that is left on customers’ plates. All food waste and napkins left on plates are composted. Front of house compost bins is also available around campus for anyone to utilize.

Reusable plates, bowls, utensils, and hot/cold cups are used in all Residential dining halls for dine-in meals.

Residential students with a meal plan have access to a reusable to-go container in select dining halls, which can be exchanged for a clean and sanitized container after each use. Customers at Retail locations receive their meals in a certified compostable or recyclable container depending on the location and type of meal ordered.

Sun Devil Hospitality encourages the use of reusable containers throughout operations by offering discounts to customers. At Retail and P.O.D. Market locations, coffee, tea and soft drinks are 99 cents with a reusable cup or mug. During the Starbucks Reusables test at ASU, Aramark provided every 5th drink free when a reusable cup was used by a customer. This promotion shifted to $1 off each beverage with a reusable cup at all Starbucks locations. Four Starbucks locations have personal cup washers installed to further encourage the use of reusables.

The Sun Devil Hospitality team offers a wide variety of Sustainability and Health & Wellness themed programs and events throughout the academic year. The Chef Spotlight program highlights recipes developed by Aramark chefs with unique and diverse backgrounds, expanding the number of culturally diverse options in our locations to meet the growing demand of our campus community. “Empowering Healthy Consumers” is a key priority of our Sustainability plan, so we have implemented a number of events with a Health & Wellness focus, such as “Dine with the Dietician,” “Nutrition 101,” and “Take 15.” In addition to physical wellness, these events prioritize mental wellness and give students ideas and tools for managing stress. Finally, our Regional support team works together to plan interactive pop-up events around Earth Day, National Nutrition Month, and more.

Austin Johnson
Aramark
Sustainability Director – West Region
Collegiate Hospitality